1 John 4:7-11
Theme: This passage gives us the reasons why we are obliged to love one
another.

(Delivered Sunday, May 5, 2002 at Bethany Bible Church.
All scripture quotes, unless otherwise noted, are from the New King James
Version.)

INTRODUCTION

The more I read the portions of the Bible that were written by John,
the more convinced I am that his great theme is "love". John has been
called "the apostle of love." When he mentioned himself in his gospel
account, he delighted to refer to himself simply as "the disciple whom
Jesus loved" (John 13:23; 20:2; 21:20). His own identity was lost in the
wonder of Jesus' love for him. He was a man utterly transformed by the
love of God.

I say this because, if you've been following along with us in our study
of 1 John, it will seem to you as if we keep repeating - over and over
- the same basic theme of love. This is because John himself returns to
this theme again and again in this letter. He returns to it once more
in this morning's passage:

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and
everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love
does not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested
toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that
we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but
that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another (John 4:7-11).

Someone might be tempted to say, "Do we have to hear this thing about
'love' over and over, again and again? Haven't we pretty much gotten the
point already?" But I have to ask: Have we really gotten the point yet?
Can we honestly say we've gotten the point until we see God's love at
work in us as a dominant principle of behavior, and are constantly loving
each other as He loved us? I know that I'm still very far from where I
should be in exhibiting God's love toward others. Sometimes, my short-comings
in this area shock and grieve me. I need constantly to be reminded of
God's love for me; and I need constantly to be exhorted to display that
love in my own life. I certainly hope that I'm growing; but I suspect
I'll need to be reminded and exhorted over and over until I'm in heaven.
Isn't it the same with you?

A non-believer once complained; "If you Christians truly believed one-tenth
of what you say you believe, then you'd live ten times better than you
do." That hurts; but I'm quite sure it's true. Biblically, the best evidence
we can offer to the world that we genuinely believe what we say we believe
is to live a life that's been radically transformed - at the behavioral
level - by God's love. John doesn't apologize for repeating this command
of God's love to us, because we need to be repeatedly exhorted to obey
it. I don't believe I can be critical of the way John repeats this command
until I'm more consistent in obeying it than I currently am.

* * * * * * * * * *

A few years ago, I experienced a personal turning-point in my appreciation
of this command to love. This turning-point occurred through my marriage.
My wife has given me permission to share this turning-point experience
with you; and she has confirmed to me that, as far as she is able to tell,
the transformation in me that I'm about to describe has truly happened.

I was preparing a sermon on God's principles for marriage, as those principles
are given to us in Ephesians 5. That passage, as you might remember, teaches
wives to submit to their own husbands as the church is subject to Christ's
headship; and it teaches husbands to sacrificially love their own wives
as Christ loves the church.

In the past, whenever I have read that passage, I tended to give the
primary emphasis to the commands - that is, that wives were to submit,
and that husbands were to love - and I tended to look at Jesus' love for
the church as the example we're to follow in obeying the command. I understood
this passage to be teaching that wives are to obey the command and submit
themselves to their husbands, and husbands were to obey the command and
commit themselves to loving their wives. In my mind, it was primarily
a matter of being obedient to a command. And our obedience to this command
was measured against a standard set by Jesus in His relationship to His
church - a standard, of course, that was beyond our ability to achieve.

But on this one occasion, something different happened; and I can only
attribute it to the Holy Spirit opening my eyes. I still maintain that
this passage is intended to teach us the principles of harmonious married
life. But something revolutionary happened in me when, for the first time,
I placed the primary emphasis in this passage on the example of Jesus'
love for His church instead of on the commands to husbands and wives.
I spent a good, long time mediating on the love Jesus has for his church;
and as a result, I began to look at my relationship with my wife from
the perspective of Jesus' love for me rather than the other way around.

This happened when I personalized what Paul says in this Ephesians passage
about Jesus love, and understood from it how Jesus loves me. I read there
that Jesus is "the head of the church", and "the Savior of the body" (Eph.
5:23). That meant that He is my "head" - the one who exercises His authority
and power to serve me and meet my needs. And it meant that He is my "Savior"
- the one who took the initiative with me, rescued me from my separation
from Him, and gave me new life.

I read that Jesus "loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He
might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word,
that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot
or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without
blemish" (vv. 25-27). That meant that He loved me and gave Himself sacrificially
for me on the cross, in order to continually cleanse me and wash me from
the consequences of my sin; and in order to present me to Himself without
spot or wrinkle or blemish, but holy and delightful to Himself in heavenly
glory. I came to appreciate His immeasurable delight in me, and in His
pleasure over the prospect of glorifying me for Himself eternally!

I read that Jesus loves the church today as His own body - giving Himself
over to nourishing and cherishing it as if it were His own flesh and bones
(vv. 28-30). That meant that Jesus loves me right now in that same way
- that He was watching out for me, continually seeking my best interest,
continually protecting me, continually nourishing and cherishing me, continually
giving me what would fulfill and enrich me, continually treating me as
preciously as if I were a member of His own body.

The more I read this passage with Jesus' love in the place of primary
emphasis, the more I became overwhelmed with Jesus' deep, sacrificial
love for me. I cannot say that I'm even remotely close to being the husband
I should be; but I can honestly say that this new, growing appreciation
of Jesus' love for me has genuinely transformed how I love my own wife.
As a result of the personal impact of Jesus' love on me, His love for
the church has become less of an unachievable "model" of the love I'm
to strive toward in loving my wife; and more, instead, the great "motivation"
and "inspiration" for my care and treatment of her.

After rediscovering Jesus' love for me in this way, I could never look
at my wife in the same way again. How could I be the recipient of such
love, and not be changed by it? I have been motivated ever since to love
and serve her - in an ever growing way - as Jesus has loved and served
me. I have been motivated to use my authority in the home to serve her
and meet her needs. I have been motivated to sanctify her and seek her
purity and holiness. I have been motivated to give her the things that
she needs in order to be happy and enriched; and to find delight in seeing
her become the fulfilled and satisfied person God meant for her to be.
I have been motivated to nourish and cherish her as if she were my own
body. I have a new, powerful inspiration to do this, because I just can't
get over the fact that that's how Jesus has first loved me!

* * * * * * * * * *

I would never share all this with you unless I was confident my wife
would agree that it was true. And the reason I'm sharing it with you today
is not because I want to be thought of as a perfect husband; because I'm
certainly not one. (If you need any clarity on that, just check with my
wife!) Rather, the reason I share it is because it illustrates the transforming
power of God's love that John is seeking to instill in us in this morning's
passage.

The command that John gives us is a very simple one: love one another.
It's not a suggestion; it's a command. But the full command is that you
and I love one another we have been loved by Jesus! It's a command that
assumes that we have personally experienced the love of Jesus, and that
this love has transformed our hearts first. It's a command that we're
motivated and inspired to obey toward one another, because the love of
Jesus had a deep, personal, transforming impact upon us.

In this passage, I see that John gives three motivations for obeying
this command. They are all based on taking a good, long look at the love
God has shown us in His Son Jesus Christ; and on allowing the realization
of that love to transform our hearts. I pray that, as we come to the Lord's
table this morning to celebrate the remembrance of the sacrifice of Jesus
on the cross for us, our look at these "reasons for love" will warm our
hearts in a fresh way. I pray that we'll grow to appreciate the greatness
of God's love for us, shown at the cross of Jesus. And I pray that, as
a result, we will become motivated as never before to display toward one
another the sacrificial love that God has showered on us.

* * * * * * * * * *

First, notice that John tells us to love one another ...

I. BECAUSE LOVE IS OF GOD (v. 7).

John writes, "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and
everyone who loves is born of God and knows God." This first reason for
obedience to the command is based on the nature of love - that is, that
genuine love has its source in God.

John, you'll remember, was writing this letter to help give assurance
to his brothers and sisters in Christ that they were genuinely saved and
were in authentic fellowship with Jesus Christ. He offers several "tests"
to verify to us that we are in fellowship with Jesus; and one of these
tests is the evidence of His love in us. Therefore, John says that if
someone displays - as ongoing pattern of their practical life - the sacrificial
love that Jesus showed toward us, then this is evidence that they are
truly born-again and walk in fellowship with God. "Everyone," he writes,
"who loves is born of God and knows God."

Why is such love evidence that we are born of God and know God? Its because
of the nature of this kind of love. The love we're being called to here
is not a mere feeling. It's the kind of love that Jesus Himself demonstrated
toward us. It is a practical, sacrificial love that is like no other.
It's a love that moved Him to give of Himself for those who were His enemies.
It was a love that moved Him to suffer and die on the cross, in order
to pay the price for our having shaken our fists at His Father and for
having sinning grievously against Him. It was a love that redeemed us
- His enemies - to Himself; so that we could be transformed into His beloved,
beautiful, glorified Bride forever. Such a love as that is not a "natural"
love. It's a "supernatural" love. And when people see this supernatural
love in us - transforming us, and displaying itself in practical, self-sacrificing
ways in our lives even toward our enemies - then they know that it's a
love that could only have come from God.

The world cannot produce that kind of love. It's not to be found in nature.
Have you ever watched one of those wildlife videos that show the "life-and-death
struggle" of the animal kingdom? Have you ever seen an animal love its
enemy? You may have; but it was with a very selfish kind of love - the
same kind of love that you or I have toward a delicious meal. There's
no "self-sacrificing love" in the natural world; only "survival of the
fittest".

The love God calls us to is not to be found in the natural man or natural
woman either. The love that comes "naturally" to fallen human beings is
the kind of love that says, "I love what you do for me." Instead, the
love God calls us to is a love that can only come from Him - a love that
says, "I will love you, even though you can do nothing for me. I will
give myself for you, even though you can give me nothing in return. I
will serve you, even though you are incapable of serving me. I will meet
your needs as if they were my own." This kind of love is one that testifies
of God, because it can only have God as its source. That's why John can
say, in verse 12, "No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another
[that is, with Christ-like sacrificial love], God abides in us, and His
love has been perfected in us." That's why Jesus told His disciples;

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another;
as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will
know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another (John
13:34-35).

And so, one of the reasons John gives for obeying the command of love
is because of the nature of such love. It comes only from God; and when
the world sees it, they see God at work. We bear witness to God before
the world when we allow His supernatural love to be displayed in us. "...
Love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God."

* * * * * * * * * *

The nature of Christ-like love - that is, that love is of God - is one
reason John gives for obeying this command. Another has to do with the
nature of God Himself; that is ...

II. BECAUSE GOD IS LOVE (v. 8).

John says, "He who does not love does not know God, for God is love".
John has already said that "love is of God"; but this doesn't mean that
"love" is something that is somehow distinct from what God Himself is
- as if someone can somehow express the love of God in a way that is independent
from God. There can be no such thing as real love apart from God because
God is, Himself, love.

People often fail to embrace the true meaning of the phrase, "God is
love". God is certainly loving toward all His creatures; but John isn't
merely saying that "God is loving". And God certainly wants us to be loving
toward one another, but John isn't merely saying that "God enjoys and
recommends love." What John is saying is that "God is love" - that love
is an essential attribute of God, an essential aspect of His being. He
can never be anything other than loving, because He Himself is love, has
always been love, and always will be love. A definition of love must always
include God's being; and a definition of God's being must always include
love.

Some have suggested that God created us because He wanted someone to
love. But to say that "God is love" means that love didn't first come
into existence when God created us. Love always was - even before the
universe or anything in it was created - because love has always existed
in the relationship between the Father and the Son. Love has always been
essential to who God is, because the Father has eternally loved and delighted
in the Son, and the Son has eternally loved and delighted in the Father.
That love and mutual delight has always been complete and satisfying between
them; and so God didn't create us because He "needed" someone to love.
We were created by a God whose delight was already perfect in an eternal
relationship of love. His work of creation was an act within the context
of an already existing, already perfect love - a love in which, now, "the
Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hand" (John 3:35);
and in which "the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all
things under Him, that God may be all in all" (1 Cor. 15:28).

We - as God's redeemed creatures - were not made by Him because He needed
something to love. Instead, we have been made by Him to be welcomed into
the marvelous "overflow" 1 of the
eternal love the triune God has always enjoyed in His own being. We have
been brought into this wonderful fellowship of love through the ministry
of the Holy Spirit because of our faith in Jesus. As Paul has written
at the end of one of his letters, "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you
all. Amen" (2 Corinthians 13:14).

Think of what a wonderful privilege it is that we have been invited to
share in that eternal love that is already shared within the Trinity!
We would never dare to even imagine such a thing, if it weren't for the
fact that Jesus Himself reveals to us that it is true! Our Savior, before
He went to the cross, prayed to the Father for His disciples and said,

"I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe
in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father,
are in Me, and I in You; that the world may believe that You sent Me.
And the glory which You gave Me I have given to them, that they may
be one just as we are one; I in them, and You in Me; that they may be
made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent
Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me. Father, I desire that
they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may
behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the
foundation of the world. O righteous Father! The world has not known
You, but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me. And
I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love
with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them" (John 17:20-26).

Now, the implication of all of this is this: If anyone claims to know
God and yet harbors hatred in his or her heart for others, that person
is fooling themselves. How can someone live a life of hatred, and still
claim to have a relationship with the very one who is, Himself, love?
It's impossible!

This, then, is another way to test whether or not you have genuine fellowship
with Jesus Christ. But it's also another motivation to keep the command
to love one another. John wrote, "And we have known and believed the love
that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in
God, and God in him" (4:16).

* * * * * * * * * *

And so, the nature of God Himself is another motivation for keeping the
command to love one another. "He who does not love does not know God,
for God is love." This leads us, finally, to the third reason John gives
us to obey this command - perhaps the most personally transforming reason
of all ...

III. BECAUSE GOD LOVED US (vv. 9-11).

Because love comes from God, and because God is Himself love, then such
a love is something that we cannot know about naturally. We would never
even know what love really is unless God, first, chose to manifest it
to us. And God did much more than merely tell us what love is. He showed
it to us by His own example. John writes, "In this the love of God was
manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the
world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved
God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for
our sins."

Notice what John says about this manifestation of love. First, he shows
us that it is a love that was profoundly sacrificial. It involved the
greatest possible sacrifice on the part of God toward us. The greatness
of this sacrifice was shown in that it involved the Father's sacrifice
of that which was most precious to His heart - "His only begotten Son".
The greatness of this sacrifice was also shown in the fact that His Son
left the glory of heaven in order to condescend "into the world." And
the greatness of this sacrifice was shown in the fact that Jesus died,
"that we might live through Him." Truly, a greater manifestation of sacrificial
love in all the universe could not be imagined than the sacrificial love
God the Father has shown us in the sacrifice of His Son Jesus Christ.

Second, John shows us that God's love for us was completely undeserved.
"In this is love," John writes; "not that we loved God, but that He loved
us ..." God wasn't motivated to love us because He first saw how much
we loved Him. Far from it! The Bible teaches us that we were "dead in
trespasses and sins" (Eph. 2:1). We had no capacity to love God at all.
The Bible tells us that it was "not by works of righteousness which we
have done, but according to His mercy He saved us ..." (Titus 3:5). The
"undeservedness" of this love is shown in the fact that "... God demonstrates
His own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died
for us" (Rom. 5:8).

And finally, notice that John shows us that God's love for us was wonderfully
effective. He sent His son "to be the propitiation for our sins". A "propitiation"
is that which satisfies the righteous anger of God, and turns His wrath
away. We could never have turned God's wrath away for our sins with any
amount of good deeds we could do; because we - the very ones who sinned
against Him - would be the ones trying to do the good deeds. The only
way God's wrath for our sins could be turned away from us is by "death".
The Bible tells us that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23); and so,
something had to die in order to propitiate God's wrath. Jesus willingly
laid down His own life on the cross, in order to be "the propitiation
for our sins". "And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins," John
writes elsewhere, "and not for ours only, but also for the whole world"
(2:2).

This, then, was God's demonstration of love for us. It was a love that
went to the ultimate limit of sacrifice, that reached down to the lowest
depths of "undeservedness", and that did not cease until it had completely
brought about our greatest possible good. And notice how this demonstration
of love is to transform us: "Beloved," John writes, "if God so loved us,
we also ought to love one another."

* * * * * * * * * *

As we come to the Lord's table this morning, I hope you will appreciate
it as a feast of "love". I hope that you will come to this table with
your heart transformed by the love of Jesus that it celebrates. I hope
that you will set aside all resentment, hatred, and bitterness of heart
as you come to it. And I hope that you will become greatly motivated to
love one another as a result of partaking of it. Because laid out on the
table before us - through the symbols of Jesus' body and blood - are the
reasons given to us to obey His command to love one another.